First Weeks continued......

So as I sit writing this I am enjoying my breakfast in the sun porch. Today the weather will be a perfect day for the beach. No Swede will be caught indoors. Plans for the day are to visit my friend Maria and go fishing!! Yesterday we went on a trail ride and I had the marvelous privilege to ride her horse. Her and the horse are qualified for a World title. So I was riding an amazing horse! Even though it was western it was still amazing!

Please note: Just ignore all of my grammatical and spelling errors. I am trying to write memories and it is a lot to write. I will try my best to be grammatically correct!



Some of my adventures in Sweden so far:

Sea Kayaking! Mats took me out on one and it was soooo much fun! I was trying really hard not to tip. The kayaks are a lot longer than what I am used to so it was different. But it was a sunny day and there were almost no waves! Perfect for kayaking!!

I went bathing when it was freezing outside and really windy. I am quite proud! The waves were huge! It was very refreshing though.

I have been on some life inspiring trail rides. My favorite one was last Saturday morning. The weather was a little chilly and it was sprinkling. I rode Mats horse Yova ( I usually do and I love her!) and Eva rode her horse Teardrop. We were galloping where we usually do and there were a couple horses in their pasture some had foals next to them. We galloped right past them and they all went into a frenzy. I couldn’t help but smile and take a mental picture in my mind. Galloping on Yova and seeing all the other horses run and be free was unlike anything I have ever seen. It made me love Sweden so much more. You can tell I am a horse fanatic!! J
Besides trail riding a lot I have been riding one a boarder’s horse, Texas. He is kind of a difficult horse to ride. He used to be a trotter so basically he knows to just trot really fast. Although his stride has gotten better it would be nice to work on him more. But he has left already because he was just here for the summer. L

My interesting time with the public transportation, I don’t ride the public bus very much back home in Iowa. So I thought when you wait for a bus you wait inside the little shed and the driver will see you and you are good to go. But I guess things are different here, obviously. So I did just that I sat inside the bus stop, little did I know that is not how you are supposed to board a bus. The bus did not stop. I had to wait an hour for the next one. I was really confused so I stood outside the whole time just to make sure he would see me. I have not seen a woman driving a bus yet, just thought I would throw that out there. Anyway, my ride home was a lot more nerve-racking. I think I should have asked Eva what stop I should get off at but I figured I would know when I saw it. Well, I didn’t and I missed my stop. So I got off and called Eva I was about 5 minutes away from where I was supposed to get off, thankfully I wasn’t in another town. I have ridden the bus twice more since this happened and I have not missed it and I got off at the right stop. Learn from mistakes! J

Shopping, when one thinks of European shopping, what comes to mind? I really had no idea I was just excited to be shopping in a foreign country. I am so thankful I met Amanda (my good friend from Canada, also an exchange student, she lives in Boras). If I had been shopping with an actual European I may have felt very out of place. We meet at the train station (its about an hour train ride from Varberg to Boras) and our shopping extravangza begins. The first store we went to was GinaTricot. It is a really nice store and we did end up finding some cute clothes. But when we first walked into there we both looked at each other and said what the hell are we doing in here!?!? But we gave it a shot and kept looking. Lets just say the fashion between Europe and the U.S. and Canada is very different. All in all it was a great day, it was interesting to see all the different fashions and have no idea how people wear some of the clothes.
You know how sometimes you may see someone on the street running to catch a bus or a train or some kind of transportation? Well I must admit I have taken part in this, along with dear Amanda. The bus we were riding was going quite slow, and we were in a time crunch so we got off the bus and ran through the downtown area of Varberg. I am sure we looked mental but we did not want to miss Amanda’s train! Oh what a day.

I have tried caviar in a tube, ham and cheese in a tube, lots of fish, and most interestingly of all I have tried the traditional Swedish crayfish. It is quite popular to have this during August. Many parties are held that involved this crayfish, fish and shots and usually what this kind of party entails. I have only had the fish. You break off the tail and body and suck out the juice then you just open the shell and voila there is all the “yummy” meat. I’m not sure what I think of it yet. Definitely not my favorite but I tried it. (pictures are on facebook.)

I currently have adopted a new pet from my friend Hana. His name is Herman. This is no normal pet, he eats sugar, milk, and flour. Do you know what he is? Yeast! Yes I am growing yeast, it takes about ten days I think. I am on day 7. It is this cake making chain. Swedish Mud cake is delicious and it involves yeast with a bunch of other yummy stuffins. So this yeast that I have now is growing and it will make five helpings. So I keep as much as I want and give the rest to friends so they can continue the chain. I just have to make sure Herman is still bubbly, or else he is dead. I can’t wait to try it! Hopefully it will not turn out like Tyler’s birthday cake disaster. J

Oh yes, my run in with the Swedish police. Just kidding! But I did meet them! There was an attempted break in of Mats and Eva’s cellar, the only things that were stolen, old wine. The police here are so much nicer than a police in the U.S. I am sure it depends on which policeman you talk to. All police here are pretty much the same. That is how they are trained. I am sure someone will beg to differ, this is just my opinion.


I visited the biggest grocery store I have ever seen! It was when I was with Amanda in Boras waiting for my train to come. We went with her host family and this grocery store is huge. Think Sam’s club only grocery store. They have these little scanner things that you can use and just scan all the items you have in the grocery cart and just pay for everything at the end. That way you don’t have to take everything out and repack it all. Great idea!! Also the recycling, there are machines that take the different kinds of recycling and so you put all your bottles and whatever else you may have into the machines and when your done you press a button and you get a receipt, you use that when you pay for the groceries and it saves you money! How cool is that! It makes me want to recycle pretty much everything! J


These are all that I can remember right now. Today and tomorrow I will be enjoying my last few days of summer. Maybe go to the beach or go for a trail ride or two. This weekend I am going on a sailing trip with the other Rotary exchange students in Uddevalla. We are going on a ship for the whole weekend! I will write more about it when I get back. Monday I will be attending my Rotary districts luncheon, I will have to use my Swedish skills and introduce myself in Swedish! Good thing we did that last week in Boras! Tuesday school starts. Oh my, there will be much to tell about that. I do not have my schedule with my right now but from what I remember I will be taking Swedish, English, French, I am on the Social Course so I will be taking Psychology, International Relations, Religion, and the ones that I got to pick, Tourism, and Film. All in Swedish except English, well some of it I will understand. It should be a very interesting and chaos filled day! My school is three times bigger than Muscatine High School and about four or five times bigger than Steamboat Springs High School.

More blogging later!
Hej do!!! (Swedish goodbye)